Yosemite slammed
Last week, the World Health Organization issued a global warning to travelers visiting Yosemite National Park, where three people have died recently after contracting the hantavirus and at least eight others have become sick.
First described roughly 20 years ago in the Four Corners region, the hantavirus is exceedingly rare (about 600 documented cases in the U.S.) but extremely deadly. Symptoms are fast-acting and virulent. There is no vaccine or cure. According to a Scientific American report, it kills more than one in three people who contract it.
Hantavirus is spread through contact with infected rodents, particularly wild deer mice, most often by inhaling dust contaminated with their droppings or urine. It is not transmitted human-to-human. In the United States, the result can be hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a particularly deadly form of pneumonia. In Central and South America, the virus is also associated with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. This form is very uncommon in the United States.
Though cases of hantavirus and infected rodents have popped up throughout the United States, the disease is most commonly associated with the high deserts of the U.S. Southwest. Its deadly appearance in Yosemite is alarming since very little is known about how hantavirus is spread.
One such effort to learn more is work done by University of Utah researchers in 2008 who released wild deer mice coated (above) with different colors of harmless fluorescent powder at 12 desert sites, then trapped dozens of mice the next day to determine how much exposure other mice had to colored mice. Their finding: Bigger, older mice were most likely to infect other deer mice with the hantavirus.
With no effective treatment or cure available, experts say the best remedy for hantavirus is to avoid contact with rodents as much as possible.
a. RhoGAM® incompatibility occurs when the Rh-negative pregnant patient carries an Rh-positive fetus. The patient’s body reacts to the “foreign” fetus blood type. The mother produces antibodies that in-turn causes destruction of the fetus red blood cells (hemolysis). Hemolysis of the fetus red blood cells deprives the fetus of oxygen (erythroblastosis fetalis).
b. The treatment for Rh incompatability is given below.
(1) RhoGAM® (immune globulin) administered 72 hours following the birth of an Rh-positive child will eliminate maternal isoimmunization. Refer to figure 1-2.
(2) An Rh-negative patient whose sex partner is Rh-positive, who aborts or has an ectopic pregnancy, should receive RhoGAM®. This is essential to prevent the patient from developing Rh-positive antibodies.
c. Nursing implications are listed below.
(1) Follow the obstetrics (OB) practitioner’s or physician’s orders for drawing of Rh antibody titer.
(2) Follow delivery room standing operating procedure (SOP) to obtain cord blood sample to determine baby’s blood type
During a woman’s physical examination, the nurse notes that the lower uterine segment is soft on palpation. The nurse would document this finding as:A.Hegar’s sign.B.McDonald’s sign.C.Chadwick’s sign.D.Goodell’s sign.
At approximately 6 weeks of gestation, softening and…
Angiogram. Before and after treatment for ischemic stroke
There are several things in medicine that I’m pretty convinced are just plain magic, no science involved. tPA is one of them. I mean, you go from being stroked out to back to normal in a matter of minutes if it works. That has to be magic, right?
HYPERKALEMIA (hyperTkalemia) ECG INTERPRETATION
Last time, I posted how I always spell hypokalemia, now its for hyperkalemia. And this is my technique in remembering its unique ECG tracing - HYPERTKALEMIA, because of its tall tented T-wave.
- prolonged P-R interval
- depressed S-T segment
- widened QRS
- tall, tented T-wave
- absence of P-wave
Hmm.. can you make my legs longer?
Here’s one I made earlier: Making organ donation a thing of the past - the British lab growing human spare parts
Don’t panic, this isn’t a severed human ear – but one that’s been grown in a laboratory at Britain’s remarkable new human body parts store
Full Story: Mailonline
Cardiomegaly related to a case of morbid obesity, where the size of the heart approximates that of the brain.
Cranial Nerves Diagram
Helpful! But 4&6 are a little weird (those are the directions your eyes look in when you’re using the muscles innervated by those nerves).
(Source: fiftyshadesofme)
ASCITES. caused by liver disease.
thats extreme!
I’ve seen cases this bad! Aye caramba.
Caused by the liver’s inability to produce albumin, leading to low oncotic pressure inside the blood vessels (low protein inside). The water in the blood vessels follows the osmotic gradient, flows out of the circulatory system, and ends up in the peritoneum! Often treated with diuretics or routine paracentesis.
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